


In Celebration of This Day

by Crowgirl



Series: On the Strength of the Evidence [38]
Category: Grantchester (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Presents, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, Quintuple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 23:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11542524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowgirl/pseuds/Crowgirl
Summary: ‘Geordie, I haven’t eaten this much licorice since I was eight!’





	In Celebration of This Day

‘You're joking.’ Sidney stares blankly at the bag on his desk. Dickens rears back, propping his paws on the blotter, and takes a long sniff, then backs away to sneeze and shake his head.

Geordie has his hands in his pockets and, Sidney thinks, a look of being entirely too pleased with himself. ‘The girls chipped in and everything.’

Sidney pokes at the bag with a finger, then unfolds the top and looks in. ‘Geordie, I haven’t eaten this much licorice since I was eight!’

Geordie shrugs, rocking back slightly on his heels and obviously fighting a grin. It keeps breaking out in the lines around his mouth and eyes and Sidney has to work not to start laughing. ‘Share it around a bit, then. You'll be every kid's favorite vicar.’

‘Five _pounds_ of it!’ Sidney pulls out one piece, balances it on his palm, and looks at it dubiously. It isn’t even the kind he remembers eating as a child: those had been long, shoe-string like things that he vaguely remembers being sold in wide coils about the size of his palm. These are short cylinders, about as thick as his little finger and a little shorter. 

‘You said you liked it.’

Sidney points the piece of candy at Geordie. ‘This is because I stuffed your pockets with acid drops, isn’t it?’

‘In the _rain,_ Sidney. You did it in the _rain.’_ Geordie over-enunciates the offensive word each time and punctuates the last one with a prod at Sidney’s chest. ‘Anything I put in me pockets still comes out smelling like sugar.’

Sidney mock-scowls and takes a bite of the piece of candy. He half-expected it to be stale, the oldest stuff that Geordie could find in the shop but it’s actually quite good, soft and a little moist with a pleasantly rich flavor of molasses. He pops the last bite in his mouth, looking at the bag thoughtfully as he sucks a last bit of stickiness off his thumb. He could give it to Mrs M, tell her it’s his donation to the grab bags at the next fête-- 

He looks up when Geordie clears his throat and realises he’s been absentmindedly sucking on the tip of his thumb. Geordie’s eyes are fixed on his mouth and Sidney can see a faint flush creeping up over his collar. 

Sidney glances over his shoulder to make sure the door is still pulled at least partially shut. Leonard’s somewhere about and he can hear Mrs M singing along to something on the wireless in the kitchen so there’s not much more he can do, but he makes very sure that his thumb and first finger are entirely free of candy before running the pad of his thumb over his lips and raising his eyebrows at Geordie.

Geordie huffs and rubs a hand roughly over his head, then clears his throat. ‘Yes, well, it’s yours now at any rate.’

Sidney nods and, quickly, reaches out to run his thumb along Geordie’s lower lip, watching the color come into Geordie's cheeks. ‘I can probably think of something to do with it.’

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _[The Famous History of the Life of Henry the Eighth.](http://www.bartleby.com/70/3441.html)_
> 
> Sidney's taste for licorice is part of a larger, as-yet-unfinished fic. There really isn't any particular foundation for it other than that at the time, I needed Geordie and Sidney to have somewhat opposite taste in sugary treats.
> 
> As I explained to the [Lady Kivrin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kivrin) and [Elizajane,](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Elizajane) it seemed unfair that I wrote Anthony Howell [a fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7323412) (that I hope he never knows anything about) on his birthday and let James Norton go by unnoticed. So, in the spirit of equality, happy birthday, Mr Norton and may you never know I said it.


End file.
